Abstract:
The downward trend of the orchid population due to its narrow ecological amplitude, mycotrophy, ontogenesis features, endemism, and entomophily has led to the fact that, at present, a significant part of the orchid family is a rare and endangered species. The population is also negatively affected by the problematic aspects of reproductive biology due
[...] Load More to the fact that for some species, an approach to the calculation of seed production has not been developed due to the complexity of calculating the tremendous number of dust-like seeds contained in one seed case. The purpose of this article is to evaluate the reproductive performance of Dactylorhiza incarnata ssp. cruenta and the conditions of seed regeneration of the species. The sampling was based on the representatives of the species living in the area of the Vychegda-Mezen Plain and the Northern Urals, for which morphometric features have been determined. The differences in features have been estimated using the Student's t-test and Mann-Whitney U-test depending on the nature of data distribution. The ToupView software has been used to record the results of the observation carried out between 2000 and 2019, which makes it possible to measure the parameters under investigation with high accuracy. In the result of observations, a sample of 11.5 thousand seeds from seed cases was formed, which was used to determine the quality of seeds. The seed cases were collected from different plants within the same population. With regard to findings of the study, a methodology of the true census of seeds with the use of ImageJ 1.5 software package in automatic mode with manual correction has been proposed. According to the methodology, the numbers of seeds in the seed cases of coenopopulations under investigations and productivity indicators, such as the potential conditional seed production, real conditional seed production, real seed production, and seed yield, have been calculated. According to the assessment results, it was determined that the maximum proportion of juvenile individuals of the species is fixed at the maximum amounts of effective temperatures (>10°C). This study contributes to the development of applied aspects of reproductive biology through the possibility of calculating the seed production indicator of Dactylorhiza incarnata ssp. cruenta on the basis of the developed methodology as a preventive tool in the prevention of population depletion of orchids and the determination of conditions for seed regeneration of the species.
Keywords: orchid, reproductive performance, seed regeneration, seed production, population, seeds.
Journal title: available for those who has paid.
Region of the journal publication: Asia.
Scientific field: Agricultural and Biological Sciences.
Indexing of the journal: Scopus (Q3).